Politics : politics@vcmc.info

This has been in the works for quite some time, but now we have dates around it.  2021 will be the last model year under the current scheme.  Beginning with model year 2022, all competition bikes, formerly red-sticker machines, will not be allowed on public land at all, unless taking part in a race.  This begs the question, what constitutes an official race?...or practicing for a race?  Completely closed-course venues like Glen Helen and even Quail Canyon MX are less nebulous, but what about mass-start desert races?  Time will tell. 

On an equally asinine note, waiting until 2025 to allow current red-sticker bikes to ride year-round on public land is pretty ridiculous.  If compliance and enforcement is already a fiscal burden, why not implement this sooner?  Let's see if sanity prevails and we start getting the new OHV "green-sticker" equivalent at renewal time.  Exhausting the current stock of stickers before issuing new ones is absurd.

Attached to this post is a pdf version of the presentation that CARB has been giving at their workshops the past few years, this particular one is from Oct 2018.  It's interesting that they point out that the red-sticker program was intended to be temporary in order to give motorcycle manufacturers the necessary lead-time to get the majority of their fleet CARB compliant.  It's also noteworthy that they call out motorcycles specifically as the majority of red-sticker, non-CARB compliant vehicles, as the vast majority of quads and side-x-sides that are manufactured are green-sticker.

Of course, this makes street-legal plated bikes even more critical for year-round riding opportunities.  It also may be the death knell for more widely adopting advanced two-stroke technology beyond closed-course racing.  Let's just hope they don't implement smog inspections for our plated motorcycles too, but I wouldn't bet against it.